A productive few hours after dawn saw another varied spread of new arrivals around the Bill that gradually tailed off in the warm sunshine and gentle northeasterly breeze. An unexpected capture of a
Mistle Thrush in the Crown Estate Field marked the beginning of a festival of thrushes that included another single
Ring Ouzels at the Bill and the Verne, as the first couple of
Redwing since the beginning of the month.
Chiffchaffs were better represented among the day's incomers with 50 logged around the Bill (including 2 already wearing rings from elsewhere), whilst totals of 30
Wheatears, 5
Blackcaps, 5
Goldcrests, 3
Firecrests and 2
Willow Warblers made up the rest of the day's numbers. Further up island saw equal numbers of
Wheatears logged plus 3
White Wagtails and a single
Black Redstart at Reap Lane/ Barleycrates. Overhead passage was noticeably subdued compared to recent days, with a drifting
Red Kite, the year's first
Swallows and singles of
Greenfinch and
Brambling of note. At sea, another 400
Gannets were logged passing through, as well as 23
Red-throated Divers, 58
Common Gulls, 18
Common Scoter, a
Great-crested Grebe and the year's first
Puffin.
The Ring Ouzel showed nicely when it first dropped into the Obs garden...
...and later there was the sort of view of it to give bird ringers' palpitations © Martin Cade:
One of the White Wagtails at Barleycrates Lane © Pete Saunders:
Many, many moons ago Mistle Thrushes were semi-resident on the island and sometimes even bred but those days are long gone and with the species no more than an increasingly erratic visitor we were excited to unexpectedly catch this one in the Crown Estate Field this morning:
Since we get to handle so few Mistle Thrushes this one was well worth a close examination and was quite straightforward to age as a youngster, hatched last year - check out the striking discontinuity in the greater coverts, with the new adult-type feathers on the inside of the tract far longer than the old juvenile feathers on the outside...
...whilst the tail was a right mish-mash of old juvenile and newer adult-pattern feathers © Martin Cade:
And what'll likely be one of the last Redwings we see this spring making up a nice trio of scarce thrushes today © Martin Cade:
